Latvia

Visu gadu dziesmas krãju, Jãņu dienu 
gaidĩdama: Lĩgo dziesmas (Ligo Songs)
T. Kalina choir, director E. Račevskis 
Melodia, C 30-13521-2, made in the USSR

My collection of international records as well as my obsession with thrift store records got started when a box of Latvian records landed in my possession some 15 years ago. There were about 40 of them, mostly orchestral works, some popular. And now I have  suddenly 45 Latvian records. The other five showed up, to my surprise, at the Goodwill just around the corner, just last week. Better yet, one of these five was a Lĩgo dziesmas, a type of song that was my favorite Latvian record from the original stack. Dziesmas, I first thought meant 'Christmas' (which would typically, but not always, make me snub a record), but it in fact simply means 'song'. Lĩgo then is the solstice, and the ligo songs are midsummer night songs. It's a nice proposition for a great record of songs and I wish some folksinger, some cult hero would sing it but it's all orchestras and choirs, and tenors and sopranos. Still, don't get me wrong, it's very nice. Listen to the second song of side A below or get it here

Children's pop

Quetcy Alma "La Lloroncita" – Ahora te toca a ti
Pop Art LP-152
Pop Art Records, New York

I talked about children's songs before but I focused solely on traditional play songs. Those songs that evolved through the times and that were conceived by children, they were games. Adults wouldn't pay any attention to them. But there is also a very different type of children's song, the kind that is created by adults and made for adults. It's called pop music and children can be a commercial asset in that world. Companies bank in on the cuteness and innocence of children, often with making them sing lyrics that are quite risque.  I used to not pay attention to either of those categories but a person can change (perhaps it's a sign of getting older) and now I pay equal attention. I've given up on age discrimination so to say. There have always been child stars, it's a whole chapter in the history of recorded music. Every country, every era, every style has its popular child performer, boys and girls alike. Careers that of course are not meant to last. This record here of Quetcy Alma was given the "happy-sad" concept, like the Tim Buckley Happy, Sad LP with the two sides of Tim Buckley on the sleeves. Quetcy Alma is a Puerto Rican girl (woman I should say) from New York. Apparently she lives in Brooklyn and joined the Jehovah Witnesses. Occasionally she performs.

Since I figured out how to embed an audio file to these posts, I haven't offered them for download anymore, but I'll make them available again. Just click here for this one, or let me know if you want something from any of the records I've written about.

The song I picked is the title track from the LP Ahora te toca a ti. Hope you like it.

Folk Songs of Iceland

Folk Songs of Iceland 
performed by Anna Thorhallsdottir
Edited by Mario de Luigi
Licensed by Editoriale Sciascia, Milan
Lyrichord Discs, Inc., New York

Just the photograph of Anna Thorhallsdottir on the cover of Folk Songs of Iceland alone is enough to bring about those nostalgic feelings about a country and their peoples. The photo is, like the music on that record, and maybe like Iceland itself, serene, mystical, and meditative. On the background is a picture of the northern light. I've never been to Iceland, only flown over, I never read the Edda (I only know of it because of crossword puzzles), and I can't speak the language but my mind has this rich history with the country based on a film I once saw that made a great impression, and an art teacher in college. Thanks to contemporary search engine miracles I was able to retrieve the name of the film, which is Hrafninn flýgur, without knowing any information about it, and see parts of it again on YouTube, a quarter of a Century after I saw the movie.

(The art teacher's name is Sigurdur Gudmundsson, by the way).

And...by the way again...the instrument Anna Thorhallsdottir is playing is called langspil, an Icelandic drone zither and the song below is called Sortnar thú Sky.

Sado

Folk Music of Japan
Ethnic Folkways Library FE 4429
© 1952 Folkways Records, New York

My luckiest  thrift store day in 2011 was the day my wife and I took a road trip to Kiwanis in Cape Coral for the sole purpose of finding records. Among the loot that day were two Folkways records dedicated to Japan. Folk Music of Japan was recorded by Edward Norbeckin 1952 and Traditional Folk Dances of Japan from 1959 by Mary L. Evans. For the sake of comparison (and collecting) I downloaded the liner notes and a few songs from the Folkways record Traditional Folk Songs of Japan recorded by Ryutaro Hattori in 1961. Each downloaded song cost me 99 cents, exactly the price Kiwanis charges for their records. The two vinyl records from Cape Coral were in excellent condition and both contained the original customary booklet with liner notes, commentaries and photos.

Sado Okesa is a love song that originates from the island of Sado. Unlike the word lesbian and the island Lesbos, Sado bears no relationship to the Marquis de Sade or the word sadism. A version on Traditional Folk Songs of Japan was actually recorded on that island but the version that you can listen to below (and download here) comes from Yokohama. It's from Folk Music of Japan. It was sung by a Geisha and is an urbanized version quite different from the original (de Sado version on Traditional Folk Songs could be considered the original version but was recorded nine years later—the true original is of course hundreds of years older).

Liturgical Music

Liturgical Music from the Russian Cathedral
Johannes-Damascenus Choir; Karl Linke, Director
Nonesuch Records, New York, H-71073
Licensed by Eurodisc Musicproduction, Germany

A consequence of the shift in the organization of my records is a shift in my record buying habits. A few months ago I started the process of filing certain records under their company's name. My instinct as a natural collector is then to collect records from those companies. Collecting from the Nonesuch label is a natural extension to the my sub-collections of scholarly folk music records from around the world (Nonesuch's Explorer Series) and of music from before 1700. The last two months I have bought, all at thrift stores, indiscriminately (nine) records from that label. The record depicted above doesn't fit neither sub-collection category though as most of the music on it was composed around one hundred years ago but the roots of Russian Liturgical music are age-old. A nice feature of Nonesuch records is their serial approach to graphics. The records look good all together. Another nice feature is that all Nonesuch records come with a wealth of information. Information about the songs, the musicians, historical and cultural context, technical information about the music and the instruments, and so on. I just received (a few hours ago) a brief history lesson about liturgical music in general and Russian liturgical music in specific. I spare you the details save for part of the opening sentence of the text on the back sleeve (the whole sentence is rather long), "The awesome cathedral music of the Russian Orthodox church—part Oriental, part Western—is one of the great bodies of choral literature..." (Edward Tatnall Canby), which sounds very promising indeed. And indeed my first response upon playing that record was of awe but unfortunately the awe faded after playing it several times. I can imagine the awe upon hearing the music in the real setting (in the Russian cathedral), but it doesn't really come across in the studio and on the record. Maybe it's because the choir on the record is not even Russian but is a German choir from Essen. The sound file below however is not performed by the full choir but is a solo by the bass. The singer has with Michael Trubetzkoi even a Russian sounding name. I think Trubetzkoi is a great bass but I think a Tuvan or Mongolian throat singer could outperform Trubetzkoi in this Epistle to the Romans. So now I made it impossible for you to listen unbiased to this track . (I wouldn't forward you any music if I didn't think it had merit.)

Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar live at Royal 
Albert Hall, London, March 1974
The Gramophone Co. of India Ltd.
made in India, 1974, EMI

I've been a fan of Lata Mangeshkar since the early 90s. You would think I have a lot of her records, but I don't. Her records are hard to come by even as she "had recorded approximately 25,000 solo, duet, and chorus-backed songs in 20 Indian languages between 1948 to 1974"(quote: Wikipedia). In fact she was featured in the Guiness book of records for having made the most recordings of anyone. Most of these songs are from over a thousand Hindi films she recorded for, yet, try to find any of these. I've tried, I even looked during a few weeks stay in Calcutta (one of the centers of India's film industry, the other center, of course, is Bombay, well known under the moniker Bollywood, where most of Lata Mageshkar's career was situated). In the twenty some years she's been on my radar, I managed to find one full length tape and a handful compilations she's on, so I was very excited to find a double album, scratchy as it is, in a thrift store in Cape Coral, just across the Coloosahatchee. Unlike all other recordings I have and heard, the ones on the Cape Coral album are not from films but are live concert recordings. They were not recorded in India but in Britain. (Lata –and her younger sister Asha Bhosle for that matter– were born in British India.) 

This week's song to share is Aaega Aane Wala, performed by Lata Mangeshkar live at the Royal Albert Hall in 1974. She first recorded the song for the film Mahal in 1949.

Amalia

11 Quedate Conmigo.m4a

Amalia Mendoza con El Mariachi Vargas de 
Tecalitlan - La Tariacuri, Vol. III
RCA Victor, MKL-1277, Printed in Mexico, 1960

France had Edith Piaf, Milva of Italy, Billie Holiday, Asakawa Mai, Marlene Dietrich, Portugal's Amália Rodrigues, every country had its diva of the tragic song. They're larger than life, adored by all citizens, considered national cultural heritage. They represent the national musical style of the people, the fado in Portugal, tango in Argentina, the blues in the US, and so on. In Mexico they have the mariachi. I found another Amalia, this one singing mariachi, Mexico's femme with the sulky, husky voice. When I saw the record cover (above) with the wet eyes and accentuated lipstick covered lips, I knew this Amalia would be right up there with all those legendary female voices. Her full name is Amalia Mendoza, and her nickname La Tariácuri, which is also the title of the record. The record opens with the sounds of the quintessential mariachi band, the uplifting trumpet sounds and a high pitched man's voice announcing. But then comes Amalia's voice with tragedy dripping off every sentence, every word sung with tears in her eyes as if they would be her last words, or at least announce the death of beloved one. Pathos of plenty but certainly not pathetic.